Kitchen and Bath Design - Kitchen and Bath design often includes the design of cabinets, so cabinet shops may hire Interior Designers to provide a cabinet layout for a kitchen, bathroom, or even a laundry room. Designers must follow guidelines to provide a safe environment for their clients. Kitchen and Bath design also includes the selection of the proper materials (countertop, flooring, backsplash...) and appliances. It is a desirable field for Interior Design graduates, as there are many opportunities in the Kitchen and Bath field.
Commercial Design - Commercial design includes hotels, schools, healthcare (hospitals, clinics, medical offices), retail stores, and any other public buildings.
Hospitality Design - Hospitality design is a part of Commercial design. It includes hotels, motels, restaurants, bars and clubs, resorts, theaters, and other places that offer 'hospitality'.
Residential Design - Residential design may include space planning of the living areas and bedrooms of a home, as well as selection of the color schemes and materials. Residential designers design the interiors of houses, apartments, and condominiums.
Residential Remodeling - Remodeling may be complicated, as the home to be remodeled is pre-existing. There are many problems for the remodeling designer to consider. The designer must inspect the home before coming up with a design. He needs to identify load bearing walls, water lines, and anything that may be an obstacle in the remodeling process. He also needs to come up with a safe and aesthetically pleasing solution to the design problem. This may be especially complicated when the entire house is being remodeled at once.
Lighting Design - Lighting designers specialize in the design of lighting in interiors. They are concerned with the types of lighting (ambient, accent, and task), the amount of lighting needed in a specific room, and the placement of the lighting sources.
Home Improvement Stores / Retail - There are large home improvement stores where a customer can go to get all of the materials he needs for a home improvement project, or smaller, specialty stores designed to suit a particular need. There is the option of working in a certain department of Menards or the Home Depot, or working in a small retail shop that hires designers to help with the layout of their product. A tile shop may offer design services and paint store associates, such as those at Sherwin-Williams, provide advice for paint colors and may even make home visits.
Distributors - You may choose to work with a company that distributes home improvement materials, such as tile or cabinetry.
Journalism - The Interior Design professional with strong writing skills may decide to become involved in journalism for publications such as design magazines.
Television shows - Home improvement television shows have become more widely popular due to HGTV and other channels that provide remodeling, design, and decorating programs and have home improvement information available to the public. However, television shows will often glamorize Interior Design - they usually do not show the 'behind the scenes'.
CAD Specialists - CAD is computer aided design. Interior Design professionals may prefer to specialize strictly in CAD programs, such as AutoCad and 20/20, among others.
Hand Drafting / Rendering - These are 2 of the skills the Interior Designer learns at the beginning of his or her education at a college or university. Hand drafting is a very precise way of drawing floor plans, elevations, and section drawings. Rendering is a way of providing a conceptual perspective drawing as a visual aid to the clients. Some Interior Designers may wish to specialize in one of these 2 areas.
Furniture Design - Furniture designers design furniture. They may present their ideas to clients or furniture manufacturers in order to sell them.
Teaching - Finally, the Interior Designer may decide to teach his or her skills to students in a college or university. Some even go back to teach at high schools. Often times, instructors will teach during the day and do design work in the evenings.
Employers of the Interior Designer include: design firms, architectural firms, flooring manufacturers, and furniture stores, among many others. Some designers choose to become self-employed by starting up their own Interior Design firms.
Decorating is not the only aspect of Interior Design; there are many areas to consider when entering this field. From Kitchen and Bath design to teaching, the options are limitless. If you consider yourself creative or enjoy helping to improve interior spaces, consider entering the field of Interior Design.


INTERIOR DESIGN IN NIGERIA
Interior design is ridiculously profitable. People will only offer their money if they know they are getting something good and there are very few interior decorators who offer that. The moment you see something that offers good value for money, the money comes out. The only thing is that you need to understand not only how to design but also how to manage the little resources that your client has and he’ll keep giving you jobs. The knowledge of how to manage resources and source for locally made resources in Lagos or Nigeria as a whole is extremely important to sustain your business. Every client is looking for a designer to do something and make his home unique. Use local materials and do something wonderful with it. So interior design is a very profitable venture, what matters the most is your mind-set. A lot depends on your mind-set.
CAN ANYBODY BE AN INTERIOR DESIGNER?
Anybody can be an interior designer because design ability is a talent. Anybody who has the ability to appreciate beauty has the ability to be an interior designer. Your first degree course, though important, isn’t a determining factor for practicing interior design. So it’s not compulsory to read something related to interior design as your first degree. However, we prefer that you have a first degree, whether its OND or BSC, you must have passed through the four walls of a university. It makes you understand life better. It’s a bit more difficult dealing with a fresh secondary school leaver who has no knowledge of life as it really is. It helps to have a training so that when you enter into an office, you even respect the environment you are in.
10 STEPS TO BREAKING INTO THE INTERIOR DESIGN MARKET

Train your eye. Since you are interested in a career as a interior decorator, chances are you already have a “good eye” for design. In other words, when you look at a room you can see what looks good, and what could be improved. But no matter how naturally talented you are, you can continually “train your eye" by studying what people consider to be good design. Seek out beautifully decorated interiors to look at. You can find numerous examples of beautiful interiors in design magazines or in your own community by visiting show homes, open houses for sale in wealthy neighborhoods, furniture showrooms, historic homes, art galleries, and offices of professionals such as interior decorators and corporate lawyers.
Educate yourself. Interior decorators are expected to know about the various elements involved in decorating such as: space planning (how to arrange furniture and other items within a particular space), use of color and light, furniture and decorating styles (for example, Colonial or Southwestern), floorings, wall coverings, window treatments, and use of accessories such as pillows and art. You can learn decorating basics through courses, books, web sites, and even by speaking with retailers of products used in home decorating (paint, carpet, lighting, hardware stores, etc.)
Practice at home. Most interior decorators get their first decorating experience working on their own homes. Even if you have just one small room to experiment with, you can get “hands-on” experience with a variety of decorating techniques. For example, you can make a dramatic change to any room, quickly and inexpensively, simply by rearranging the furniture or painting the walls a new color. Give it a try! Experiment with techniques you wouldn’t ordinarily use. Consider this room your “research lab” where you can try things out before recommending them to a client.
Volunteer your services. Your friends and family members may already have asked for your advice about decorating, but if they haven’t yet asked you to actually decorate their homes or businesses, why not offer? Some occasions your family or friends may want to redecorate are when they experiencing transitions in life, such as: marriage or co-habitation (help them merge two households into one), moving into a new home, childbirth (offer to decorate the baby’s room), hosting a special event such as a wedding or dinner party, starting a home business (you could decorate their new office), and selling a home (explain how a well decorated home can attract buyers).
Prepare a portfolio. A portfolio is a collection of samples of your work, plus any other documents that can help show why someone should hire you. The most important part of an interior decorator's portfolio is photographs of interiors you have decorated, so make sure you take "before” and “after” photos of every space you decorate. Choose 15-20 photographs of work you are proud of, and arrange them in a photo album or portfolio case. Your portfolio can also include letters of recommendation and "design boards" (poster boards onto which you have pasted pictures and samples of materials such as fabrics, flooring, wallpaper, etc.) to show clients what you recommend to decorate a particular room.
Get a job. Even if you plan to start your own interior decorating business, you can learn about the business and meet potential clients by starting with a job in the industry. Companies that hire people with decorating talent include home builders, manufacturers of furniture and housewares, hotel and restaurant chains, retailers (furniture stores, home improvement stores, antiques dealers, housewares stores, etc.), plus interior design and decorating firms. To get a job, you will need to prepare a resume that emphasizes your experience with decorating plus any other skills the employer is looking for, such as customer service or organizational ability.
Start your own business. Many interior decorators dream of being their own boss. If that's your goal, you'll need to decide on business matters such as your company's name and whether to incorporate or not. Free basic business advice is available from organizations such as SCORE and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Many interior decorators choose to work from home when they start their businesses because it saves on the cost of an office and, unlike many other types of businesses, you won’t be expecting clients to come to you ­ will usually be going to their homes or offices.
Establish relationships with suppliers. Suppliers are companies that supply the products and services you need to decorate. They include manufacturers of furniture, wall coverings, flooring, fabrics, etc. as well as contractors who do painting, carpentry, installation, etc. When you go shopping as a professional interior decorator, you are entitled to “designer discounts” of up to 50% off the regular retail price which you can pass on to clients. While some decorators charge an hourly rate or a flat fee, others charge "cost-plus." For example, if your cost for a product is 40% percent below the regular retail price, you could charge the client your cost plus 20%, thereby saving the client the other 20% they would pay to buy the same item at a retail store. This opportunity to save money on decorating may convince clients to hire you.
Get clients. Your potential clients could include home builders, new home buyers, wealthy home owners, professional couples, advertising agencies, art galleries, bed and breakfasts, boutique stores, corporate head offices, hotels, law firms, restaurants, spas, and many other types of businesses. One way to market your services is by networking with professionals who can refer business to you, such as real estate agents, architects, antiques dealers, art dealers, home renovators, and owners of businesses that sell home furnishings. Other marketing techniques include putting up a web page with photos of interiors you have decorated and getting publicity in the homes section of your local newspaper.
Grow as a professional. Successful interior decorators continue to learn new decorating techniques. Once you have started a business you can continue to develop your skills by attending trade shows, reading decorating magazines and books, and joining professional associations. You can also impress clients and have an advantage over your competition by becoming certified as a professional interior decorator.

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GOOD ONE

Read the write up just now in my quest for place to acquire interior design skills.
OP could you please help with info about the possible training centers or schools in Nigeria.
Thanks for the wonderful piece.�